I’m in dire need of a notebook to do some writing on – very little else I need it for, but I have a two hour commute every day, and would like to do something useful while I’m on that train. The Asus EeePc seems to fit that bill at 300€, but there are offers of real notebooks for 479€s if I don’t need a name brand (which I don’t).
My main concerns right now are writing, battery life, ease of use and weight – does anyone yet have an EeePc and can tell me if they are happy with it?
I’ve not even seen one in the flesh, but I think you’re likely to find the screen and keyboard a bit cramped for serious word-processing.
There’s another option — a dedicated word processor like the Neo. Here’s a review. And another review.
I don’t personally have one, but I have a friend that does and she swears by it.
Doctor Who, it looks like I can’t get the Neo in Europe, which probably means I can’t get German keyboard-support. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. Looking at the thing, I also don’t think it supports my way of writing, which is very much prone to shift up and down through the text as ideas strike…that may also be a problem for an EeePc. Mangetout, I’m wondering about that, too. I’m not going to do word processing as such, just writing. I’m hoping someone’s used the thing and can tell me if they’d consider it too cramped for an hours writing session at each end of the day.
My son got one a while ago, and at first was a bit put off by the keyboard, but eventually got used to it and to the small screen. After all, it is much bigger than a PDA.
He wanted it mainly for the WiFi so he did not have to lug his laptop, but now is very happy with it. He says battery life is very good. Biggest problem was learning Linux, but he’s extremely happy with that and mayeven load it on his laptop.
I just bought one and in as much as it’s a lovely machine, I’m not sure I’d want to use it as a primary word processor. I have small hands, so the smaller keyboard doesn’t bother me. It’s the friggin’ shift key that kills me. The right shift key is tiny and has the up cursor squeezed in between it and the “/” key, which means I’m always hitting the up arrow key rather than the shift key and it drives me batshit insane.
The screen resolution is 800x480 which will isn’t really optimal for word processing, but the bundled OpenOffice Writer works pretty damn well. I’m already planning on getting a big clunky cheap Dell as my primary couch surfing notebook because the eee is really a bit too small to comfortably web surf. It’s actually so small, that it doesn’t really sit on your lap correctly. Many websites including Google Maps and Youtube do not work well with the limited vertical resolution. On Youtube, you have to scroll to center the video on the screen and you lose a little bit on the top and bottom of the video. On Google Maps, the zoom out portion of the controls is off screen, and there is no scroll bar to allow you to access it.
All in all, it’s the perfect travel machine for me. It’s tiny and light enough to carry around in a backpack all day long when traveling. The OS is very intuitive. It boots in something like 20 seconds and shuts down almost instantaneously.
If I were you, I’d consider waiting around for the 10 inch display model, which web rumors claim will be in the exact same form factor as the 4G surf. I’m not sure where they will put the speakers though. It also will have a solid state drive of 8GB which will be way better as a significant portion of the 4GB offered on the current machine is taken up by the OS.
(plus shifting up and down the text to insert and edit things = ‘word processing’ - in my book, anyway.
I think you’d be better off with a proper subnotebook laptop - but it depends - if you have dainty hands, you might be quite OK with typing on it for extended periods - this review rates the keyboard fairly well.
Heh, well, maybe. I’m figuring word processing to be more like changing fonts, layouting, footnoting etc. But YMMV.
If I had the kind of money to get a real subnotebook, I’d love to. As it is, it’s either a cheap no-name real notebook, or this; I’m still undecided…
Thanks to all, though!
If all you want to do is write, do you really need a brand new machine?
I’m thinking something like:
-IBM Thinkpad 240 (lovely little subnotebook) - very cheap second hand.
-New battery
-Capacious thumb drive (the onboard HD is a bit small - 3GB I think)
If you could find someone to install gOS on an old thinkpad or something, that would be a pretty nice machine. I guess it would be usable for text-bashing even with Win98 still on it.
Sounds like you need the AlphaSmart Pro or its successors. Don’t know about German keyboards for it, but otherwise …
cough See Post 3 and subsequent discussion. cough (The Neo IS a successor to the Alphasmart.)
Computers are getting so cheap these days I would never settle for an EeePc of limited functionality. While you might only want it for word processing now, you never know what will happen 18 months from now.
Instead I would shop around for a refurbished Laptop from a major producer.
Looking here: Help Center | Micro Center
You can see a huge variety of PC with much fuller functionality for only $50-$100 more than the EeePc. Since it’s not going to be a full-time machine for you you can get away with a refurb unit.
Wouldn’t something like this be worth the extra $50?
Am I remembering correctly that the 8GB eee is out in March?
I haven’t tried the Eee Pc yet, but I’ve had some very small keyboards that were perfectly usable. And one or two large ones that I couldn’t stand. So I recommend you find an Eee PC to try out and see for yourself.
IIRC the Eee PC’s battery life is claimed to be 2.5 hours. Normally I’d look at that and say you’ll be lucky to get 1.5 hours in actual use. But the few reviews I’ve read all say the battery life is very good. Maybe the lack of a hard drive really helps here.
It’s almost 3 times heavier than the Eee. I wouldn’t recommend it for daily train commuting.
Does anyone sell them in a brick and mortar store? I can’t find one and their website isn’t useful.
How’s it of limited functionality? I’m using mine mainly for word processing, and run Word 2007 on it. The only downside is the small screen, but that’s not too big a deal.
Dynamism is already selling the 8GB version, which comes with 1GB RAM, for $499.
I don’t have an eee (but I do lust for one). However, I do have an older 12" Sony notebook, and I find the keyboard is too small to use for long periods of time. I can’t write more than a page or two at a time without my hands cramping up. The EeePC is significantly smaller, so personally I wouldn’t consider it at all if I wanted to do major writing with it.
Our local Microcenter store has them.
I’ve been watching the news on the Eee PC since I first read about them. They have already sold some 8gig machines (newegg.com had some), but apparently they’re having some issues with them, so they’ve slowed down on the shipping. I’m not an early adopter at heart, so I’m kinda hanging back to see if the 10" screen is going to come out soon.
Another tiny PC coming down the pike is the Everex Cloudbook that’s supposed to come out in the middle of the month. (It was originally scheduled to come out 2/1, but they pushed the delivery date back. We’ll see if they make the new date.) While it still has only a 7" display, it DOES have a 30g hard drive. It uses the gOS operating system (whatever that is – Linux based??).
I want a Linux machine. Hell, I just want a laptop. Don’t NEED one, but want a cute little machine. :dubious: